Chapter 2

I'm not sure that I understood the plan. I guess I thought that Rebecca was supposed to find out as much as she could, while whatever we were facing tried to take control of her. But that wasn't what happened. Rebecca was clearly under the influence of the voice that was speaking to all of us. I was fighting hard not to let whatever it was get me to accept its offer.

It seemed like my mind was working in slow motion. The effort of saying, "No," seemed to take all of my strength. And I didn't even have to say it. All I needed to do was to think, "No." On the other hand, if I so much as thought, "Yes," or even, "Maybe," everything that made me the person I am would be gone forever.

"Sarah, I love you," it popped directly into my head. I knew it was Chris, I just didn't know how. Chris doesn't have any kind of powers except his fighting skills. He's out of his element here, but he had just saved me. Suddenly anger flared in my brain. "Fuck no, you bitch. Get out of my head," I thought as hard as I could. I turned my mind to thoughts about Chris and Charah. I thought about how wildly he was probably going to go overboard for her first birthday party in six months. I had told him that she'd never remember it. But he kept talking about photos and videos, so I knew I hadn't convinced him.

There was no way, I'd let this thing take me away from them. Then there was another voice in my head. "I got it," said Aunt Angela. Suddenly my eyes opened again and I saw Rebecca almost at the door. Chris using that great speed of his, crossed the room in a heartbeat and stood between her and the door. Chris gently slapped her and her eyes began to focus.

As Rebecca regained her wits, there was some kind of explosion. It was like a bright light blasting my brain. "Get out of my head!" it was Rebecca and she was throwing off so much raw psychic power that I was surprised that Chris hadn't felt it.

Then there was another blast. This one was physical. It was happening so much faster than anything I had ever seen. Like some sort of weird implosion, all of the windows in the room blew inwards hurling shards of razor sharp glass our way. Angela grabbed Rebecca's shoulder. Somehow my aunt was able to tap into Rebecca's abilities and redirected every single piece of the razor sharp death harmlessly, I had thought, against one of the walls.

Then as I looked towards the wall, I actually saw her. I saw the thing we were fighting. It was a woman. While not exactly pretty, she wasn't ugly. She was dressed like one of those early settlers. She had the long layers lot petite coats and the severe hairstyle of that time period. I suppose that in the manner of her era she was attractive. Her face on the other hand was both angry and smiling at the same time.

She smiled like a wolf that was playing with her food. And then she leaned her head back and laughed.

"Well ... this was fun," she said, still chuckling. "I guess I won't be able to do this the easy way."

I looked around and everyone in the room including Chris could obviously see the woman. She wasn't flesh. It was almost like she was made of mist, but she was clearly there.

"You, little witch," she said pointing at Rebecca. "You have a choice to make. If you ever want to see your mate again, you will meet with me on the night of the solstice. You can even bring your friends if you want. They're obviously no threat to me. And they seem to give you courage. Besides when you and I are done, I'll enjoy watching you flay the skin from their cold dead bodies."

No one said anything. We just stared at her. We were shaken. "I might keep that one to serve me," she spat, pointing at Chris. "But for now, you all seem to be stunned. Let me do something to light a fire under you." As her misty form dissipated, small fires sprang up all over the office. At the same time, the lights went off all over the building. Even stranger was the fact that the electronic locks on all of the doors snapped shut. I tried to swipe my badge but the power was off.

Evie started to freak out. "She's trying to burn us alive," she said. Savannah calmly went to one of the blown out windows and looked down. Smoke began to fill the room. That also shouldn't have happened. The wind from the blown out windows should have gotten rid of the smoke. But the wind didn't seem to come inside the building.

"I've got the fire," said my Aunt Angela. She grabbed Rebecca's arm again and closed her eyes. A cool sprinkle doused the fires.

"I've got the door," said Chris. Sometimes my husband could be an asshole. He grabbed my shoulder the way that Angela had Rebecca's. Then he leaped into the air executing a side jump kick. His outstretched foot slammed into the door, snapping it open and freeing us.

"That wasn't magic," spat Evie.

"It got us out of here," said Savannah. "That counts as magic in my book."

We got outside of the building and looking back at my office from outside, I was glad we have great insurance. Strangely enough, no one outside of the office had heard a thing. I went to the guard shack and told the building's security chief to call the insurance company and get an agent to look at the damage to my office. I'd need new flooring, some paint and new furniture, but it could have been much worse.

As I went back to the parking lot, I noticed that everyone had that look of having been through a war. They were all looking overwhelmed and exhausted. Savannah was quiet as usual and even Evie was silent. Aunt Angela still had her smile and she was using it to try to prop up Rebecca's spirits.

Chris was herding everyone into my SUV. There are six of us so we'd all fit. Then I noticed that Chris was heading for his car. I should've known that even in a situation like this one, Chris wasn't capable of leaving his Mustang.

"Evie," I yelled. "You're a trucker. Well your husband is anyway ... Drive my truck. Just follow us."

"For crying out loud, Sarah," she smirked. "Let the man breathe." But a few seconds later, Evie got her tiny body into the driver's seat and followed us out of the parking lot.

I settled back into the thick leather of the GT 500's cabin and closed my eyes. I was totally drained. I reached for my husband's hand and thanked my lucky stars that he'd been with me.

"Chris ... I..." I mumbled as exhaustion got the better of me and I fell asleep.

"I love you too, Sarah," he said.

Joey

I woke in darkness. My hands were tied behind my back. Everything hurt. I remember that man ... that thing had punched me in the face several times. I had never been hit that hard in my life and I've been through a few scrapes. What really irked me was the ease of the way he handled me.

He started the evening out by stalking me. I'd noticed him following me earlier. He wasn't being very slick about it. I stopped walking when I came out of the plant. I needed to call Sarah and find out what had happened with her surveillance of my cheating wife. I figured that if I just stopped the guy would walk right by. So I made my call. The bastard had the gall to just walk up and push me while I was talking. Then he pushed me again. I told Sarah that I'd call her back. I unloaded a haymaker on the guy. I thought that it would have ended things immediately. I mean let's face it. I'm only five foot nine but I'm a solid two hundred and ten pounds. Most of it is muscle although there's some gristle and yeah okay, there's some fat there too.

But the guy I fought ... he was old. He had to be in his fifties or sixties. He was my height, but I had to outweigh him by at least fifty pounds. So when I slammed my fist into his jaw, I expected his lights to go out. I had given the bastard my Sunday punch and his hat barely tilted. He didn't do any kind of fancy karate moves or anything. He just stood there smiling while I punched him.

"Are you finished?" he asked. I didn't say anything. I was still in shock that my punch hadn't hurt him. Shit, my hand was busted and I think I sprained my shoulder. My punch did more damage to me than it did to him. Then he grabbed me. He grabbed me so fast I barely had time to react. With one hand that old man threw me at least twenty feet backwards and I had a very rough landing. Before I could get up to run, he was on me. He punched me a couple of times. His fists moved so quickly that I had no chance to block them. I guess I blocked them with my face. After the second punch, I was out on my feet. Then I was just out. The next thing I remember was waking up just now.

All kinds of thoughts went through my mind. The guy had looked like some kind of old bum. Maybe he was one of the guys that my wife had been fucking. Maybe she's found out what was going on and had sent this guy after me to make sure I didn't try to divorce her.

Obviously she couldn't understand how tough this was for me. I loved her more than I could ever express. I didn't want to hurt her. I wanted to give her the freedom to go out and screw all of the old drunks she wanted. I just didn't want to be married to her while she did it.

Even now, tied up in some dark hole on the ground, I still loved her. It's going to take me a long time of ever to get over her. Somewhere in the darkness near me I heard a gasp.

"Who's there?" I asked.

I heard another gasp. It sounded as if every breath the person took was agony. I heard several short sharp breaths, but no reply to my question.

"My name is Joey Logano," I said. "My hands are tied. I'm here against my will. Are you a prisoner too?"

"I'm Sister Piety," she said. Then she took in another obviously painful breath.

"Did you say ... Sister?" I asked. "As in you're a NUN?"

"Yes," she said painfully. "But I'm not the kind of nun you're used to."

"So you're one of those modern nuns, who wear suits and write books and go on TV shows huh?" I asked.

She laughed at that. Even though I could tell laughing hurt her. Her mood brightened considerably.

"I'm probably more of a throw back," she laughed. "I do wear a suit. But it's not like any suit you'd imagine a nun wearing. And there won't be any books written by us. And we don't dare go on television."

Even as she spoke, the pride she had in what she did shone through and her voice became stronger. "Don't worry, Sister. Before I was taken, I was able to get a message to a friend of mine. She's the best PI in the business. She'll track us down," I said.

"Joey, as soon as my Sisters get the chance, they'll come for me. I think they'll find us before your investigator does. We're kind of professionals at this sort of thing. We have an entire team supporting us. I'm actually surprised that we haven't already been rescued," she said.

We sat there talking, sharing our strength. Our conversation became a defense against the fear and the darkness. All through the talk though, I had the feeling that there were things she wasn't telling me. Later on, I was glad she hadn't. I was nowhere near ready for that kind of knowledge.

Mason

As soon as the sun began to set I was up and moving. The fading embers of the sun were very uncomfortable but I had no choice. I put on dark sunglasses, plenty of sunblock and a dark hoodie and set out for the apartment where Patience and Penance awaited me.

Patience was up and moving although unsteady on her feet. She looked alarmed at seeing me. She quickly grabbed me and yanked me into the room. Even Penance was stunned at seeing me, with my exposed skin smoking and blackening.

"Mason, you fool. Dying won't get us to her any faster," she said.

"I can't lie there, while she..." I began.

"We feel the same way," said Patience. "But we need to get there intact."

"And once we get there we're going to have to have a plan," said Penance.

"We're going to have to do something awful too," said Patience. Penance looked at her and dropped her head.

"What?" I asked. "There's nothing I won't do for her. I ... I'd die for her." Even Penance was moved by what I'd said.

"I wish that it was that simple, Mason," said Patience. "It's easy to commit ourselves to this because this is what we do. The hard part is trying to convince someone else to do so. It's especially difficult, when the person is a friend. She's already done her part and walked away from this kind of thing. She has a home and a family. She has a child. She doesn't need this anymore."

"You're talking about that Prudence woman that the asshole who took Piety was talking about, right?" I asked. They both nodded.

"We'll figure it out on the way," I said, feeling like shit. We left a short time later for the airport. Once again I got us on my friend's plane. We had the entire night to fly to Chicago. I knew it wouldn't take us that long but I had to find a place to go to ground in a city I'd only seen a couple of times. I had no places to stay in Chicago. I needed to make sure I wasn't killed during the day. I trusted Patience and to a lesser extent Penance, but I never took my safety for granted. They did, after all, work for the church.

Sarah

I awoke in darkness. I was lying on a comfortable sofa with a warm blanket thrown over me. Even though it was dark, I could sense Chris near me. My eyes opened and I saw his profile against the window looking outward.

"I miss her," he said. Somehow even in the darkness Chris had been able to sense the moment that my eyes opened.

"I know Honey. I do too," I said.

"Everyone is asleep," he said. "That battle, or whatever it was, has all of you exhausted. Both bedrooms upstairs are full. Aunt Angela and Rebecca are in one. Evie and Savannah are in the other. Evie is amazing. She drove the whole way here like a pro. She was still driving long after all the rest of you were asleep. She fell asleep the second we got here. I had to carry her up the stairs. She talks a lot of shit, but her heart is in the right place."

"Where exactly are we?" I asked. "I kind of slept through your great escape plan."

"We're at Will Temple's cabin. Remember, we hid here during the weird case with the clones?" he said.

"Can you believe that we thought that was a weird case?" I asked. He sighed and I could imagine him shrugging his shoulders. "So let me get this straight," I quipped. "There are two huge beds upstairs and somehow, the love of your life didn't rate a spot on one of them?"

"Someone has to watch over you ladies while you were asleep," he said.

"Well that covers you, but what about me?" I asked.

"I didn't want you away from me," he said softly. "I..." he suddenly turned and faced the stairs as if he'd heard something.

"Good Lord that's scary," smiled my Aunt Angela. "How the hell did he know I was there?"

"Go ahead, Chris," she said. "Tell my niece that you love her, for the two hundredth time today. She loves hearing it. And back there, you telling her that, pulled her out of that crap we were in."

"I love you, Sarah," he said and as usual, it made me feel like I could explode from happiness. We would survive all of this weirdness. We always did. And someday we'd have lots of great stories to tell our grandkids.

Angela gave us a few moments while she gathered the rest of the group.

"Her name is Bridget Bishop," said Angela. "I googled her. She was one of the first to die during the Salem witch trials. She is really pissed and she wants revenge."

"How the hell do we figure in that?" asked Evie.

"Something is driving her," said Angela. "She believes that by taking the power of a hundred witches she will become powerful enough to take a new body and get revenge on both the souls and the descendants of the people who hung her."

"Can I repeat my damned question, or are you going to answer it?" asked Evie.

"Rebecca may be the most powerful witch on the planet, right now," said Angela. "Bridget wants her body. Like Sarah said. These nightly attacks were just her taking Rebecca's body out for a test drive."

"Uh ... you can answer my question any time ya want, Aunt Angela," said Evie.

"We're in this because Bridget needs the power of a hundred witches. The three of us were on her list. Since she couldn't get us she got pissed and now she wants us too. She's like a pit bull with a bone. But I know how to stop her. There's a necklace called the amulet of St. Clair. It is supposed to prevent the wearer from being possessed by anything. It's mostly used against demons, but I'm pretty sure it would work against a dead witch too."

"If we get it, not only could we prevent Bridget from taking over Rebecca's body, we can trap her inside of it."

"Now that sounds like a fucking plan," said Evie. "Where is it?"

"That's where Sarah and Chris come in," said Angela. "After all, she is the best there is at what she does."

"Does she actually do anything?" asked Evie. "I didn't know that running around yelling "Where's Chris?" counted as an accomplishment."

"Shut up, Bitch!" I yelled. Then we smiled at each other.

"Go get it, Cuz," she smiled. I headed into the spare bedroom that Will used as an office.

I started searching for it. The worldwide web is amazing. You can find information about anything there. It took me an hour to find information on the amulet. I found out its history and how it came to be. Then I had to track it down through the years. At about one a.m. I heard murmuring outside the door.

"She's been in there for hours," whispered a female voice.

"Just let her work," whispered Chris. He tiptoed into the room and left a hot cup of cocoa on the desk beside me and gently kissed me.

Two hours later I emerged from the room with a smile on my face. "For the past thirty years the amulet has been in the possession of a witch named Margoli Szardos. She lives in New Orleans. She's gotten rich as a fortune teller. She owns a strong of fortune teller's shops. Everyone thinks it's pure hokum. No one knows that she's a real witch. She sold the Amulet to a woman name Aida Dwapps last year at Halloween. Chris, Honey, you and I are headed for New Orleans."

"We're going to find out where the Dwapps woman is, from the witch right?" he asked.

"No, Honey," I said. "Ai Dwapps and her husband, Wayne Dwapps, live in a suburb of Chicago. They're only about an hour's drive away from us."

"Then why are the two of you going to New Orleans?" asked Evie.

"Because after they used the amulet, they returned it to Margoli," I said. "We need to hurry because we need to be back here as soon as possible. Aunt Angela can keep you guys safe until we get back. But we need to get that amulet to protect Rebecca before that bitch comes back stronger. We barely fought her off tonight. If she burns a couple of more witches and gets stronger, it's game over for us."

Less than ten minutes later Chris and I were on our way to the airport. We were going to try for a flight to New Orleans that left at about 9 a.m. With all of the new security procedures we needed to get there quickly.

On the way there Chris had a bit of insight. He reminded me that there were all of those small private chartered planes that schedules around availability. We might be able to get one of them cheaper than the last minute commercial flights. I booted up my lap top and found a guy who was flying in to Chicago, from New Orleans. With any luck we might be able to make the return flight with him.

When we got to the airport, the guy had already landed and was refueling his plane for the trip back. We thought that he might want a few hours of down time, but he was refueling his plane. We had to wait for his passengers to leave before we could talk to him about the trip back.

There was something odd about his passengers. One of them, a guy, seemed like the typical grizzled Cajun guy. He was in his late twenties with a three or four day beard growth. He seemed to be really pale and really intense. Other than that there was nothing unusual about him. Maybe it was my years in the investigation game, but I just sense something weird about him despite appearances.

The two women with him on the other hand, freaked me out. They were both dressed in head to toe leather that had seen better days. One of them was an older bookish-looking woman. She was beautiful and could have been any age from forty to sixty. The other was the biggest woman I have ever seen in my life. She was an amazon brought to life and twice as fierce. And naturally she was another redhead. I was really glad that we hadn't brought any of the others with us.

The giant redhead looked us over and I swear something passed between us. Then she quickly looked away and started talking to her two odd companions. I wish that I had the time to investigate them further. I swear in the two minutes that we were near them, I heard her talk about killing something or someone at least twenty times. One of those times I think she was talking about us.

Mason

Traveling with Patience and Prudence was an event. Patience, except for her clothes didn't attract any attention, and was no problem. Penance, on the other hand, was a piece of work. I'm firmly convince that Penance is a force of nature. Her suspicion of everything and surly nature had us constantly stopping her from staring at or confronting people around us. Adding that to the fact, that despite her size, Penance is beautiful, and we had problems.

There were men staring at her and a few women. When she caught them staring, she suspected that they were after us. Other times she thought they were working for the vampire we were running from, but seeking at the same time. That led to Penance whispering about murdering everyone we passed. And Penance suspected everyone. Men, women, children and even pets, were all on her list. I had to pull her away from a staring contest with a blind woman's seeing-eye dog. That led to a lecture from her about how if I ever touched her again, she'd find a way to bring me back to life so she could kill me.

Just as we were leaving the airport, she stared at a couple. She swore there was something about them. The guy was a thin blond guy. He looked like a slightly older surfer. He probably needed a shave, but then the same thing has been said about me. As I looked at him more closely, I could see there WAS something about him. He was looking at us as if he was sizing us up and trying to figure out how he'd take us out if necessary.

"Buddy, you have no idea," I laughed. The woman with him was incredible. She had long strawberry blonde hair that was almost a living thing. She was tall and lanky, with interesting curves. She wore those tiny square glasses that perched on her nose, making her look like the world's sexiest librarian. She too took in everything around her. If we had more time, it might be interesting to see what they were up to. But time wasn't on our side for a couple of reasons.

First I needed to find the spot where we were supposed to meet that asshole vampire. Second, I needed to convince Patience and Penance's old comrade to help us rescue Piety. Although the three of us felt guilty about trying to drag her back into this whole thing. So we left the airport without confronting anyone.

I used my phone to find two hotels within driving distance of the airport. I rented a car and dropped the two women off at one hotel without telling them where I'd be staying. Before I left Patience told me they'd get some sleep and then check out the place for the meeting and contact their old friend. We'd visit her the next evening when I rose.

I checked into my hotel, which was a little bit less touristy and more off of the beaten path, just before the sun came up. I hung out the do not disturb sign and then drew the drapes as closely as possible. Then I got out my suitcase and pulled out a long plastic bag that was lined in a very dark material, so it was completely impervious to sunlight. I put the bag under the bed and zipped myself into it. It was a risky place to sleep, but for Piety, I'd risk anything.

The next evening I awoke. It wouldn't have surprised me if I hadn't. But since I had. I had things to do. I called Patience and told her that I'd be in front of their hotel in twenty minutes.

They'd been busy. They had already paid a visit to the site of their battle with the other vampire two years prior. They had also contacted their home base and relayed everything that had happened. Apparently their superiors wanted to get them out of there and try to send someone else in. They kept referring to some mysterious "HER," and possibly even "HIM."

When I pressed them for information on who "HER," was they were vague. And they refused to even discuss "HIM." So with the higher ups in the church believing that the two of them should stay put until help arrived and time running out, we were on our own.

Patience had the address of their former comrade, but had decided against contacting her. "Mason, you have to understand," she said. "We love Piety. But we love Prudence just as much. It doesn't seem smart to risk losing both of them. Prudence has earned her right to a good life. And the church wasn't very good to her in the end. When they thought she'd been infected, they simply turned their back on her and rolled out another. That was how we came to work with Piety. We can figure this out ... We will get her back..."

"Or die trying," interjected Penance.

"We just have to be smart and analyze all of the possibilities. We just have to out maneuver this vampire..."

"And kill anything that stands in our way," said Penance.

"This vampire is obviously very old and very smart," I said. "He's probably had hundreds of years of honing his strategies and battle plans and..."

"And aren't you Debby Downer," grumbled Penance.

"Let's take a look at the place we're supposed to do this exchange," I said. "Maybe we can use the area against him. Or maybe he has someone watching the area to see if and when we show up."

We drove to the area, which surprisingly wasn't a barren area with open land like the place that we encountered the other vampire a few months ago. It was a place that was filled with bars and restaurants. But their battles had taken place in an alley behind a strip of bars. With the excitement and noise of people partying, no one had paid any attention to the sounds of the battle. There was a small clearing about fifty yards away that led to a park that had a woodsy area and a small hill. I'd rather have our next battle there than the alley.

Looking around the area, my sense lit up. I noticed them in the darkness behind the strip of bars. Two people who shouldn't have been together. One was clearly a vampire. He was relatively powerful but very young. His companion was clearly not human. I smelled something on him. It was the same odor that I got from the werewolves back in Texas. We hung to the shadows to watch them.

We had an idea. We should probably send Patience for a walk in the area to see how they reacted. Maybe one of them would go after her. Or maybe they'd go back to report that we'd arrived.

We were just about to put out plan into action when they came out of the woodwork. Obviously Papa Tulu had not only scouted the area, but had been prepared for us to show up. Suddenly there were three more werewolves and another, older vampire behind us. They had us surrounded and out-manned. Four werewolves and two vampires. They had double our numbers and they were powerful.

One of the vamps, a bald headed man who looked like some sort of Goth or skinhead walked right up to us.

"Stupid," he said. "You showed up early and empty handed. This isn't worth continuing. You haven't followed his instructions at all. Papa doesn't like it when you break the rules. I guess a little ass kicking is in order. Perhaps we'll have to take another of your nuns to let you know that we're serious."

We had no equipment and no weapons. I, of course, didn't need any, but we hadn't planned on fighting. This was supposed to be recon only. It didn't matter. She jumped down off of one of the near rooftops dressed entirely in Red leather. Her leather wasn't like the outfits worn by Patience and Penance, but it wasn't very different either. Perhaps it was more modern. There were patches that were obviously Kevlar in strategic areas and it was both tighter, yet more flexible at the same time.

She landed almost silently in a three point stance and then rose to face the vampire. Both Penance and Patience gasped, "Sister," at the same time.

"I'm not a nun anymore," she said with a smile. As I looked at her, I was stunned. The woman practically glowed. Her long golden hair seemed to sparkle with every shaft of light that struck it. She stood there with more confidence than even I had.

"That's the one Papa wanted," sneered the vampire.

"Hey guy," she smirked. "You might not want to reach for me like that."

"Why not?" leered the vampire. "All of those phone commercials talk about reaching out and touching someone. Besides, your friends here are beaten down and afraid. The werewolves can smell the fear on them. You'll be fighting alone."